Monday, January 23, 2012

CHILDHOOD'S END





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Childhood's End, Arthur C Clarke, Harcourt Brace & World, 1953, 220 pp


Wow! All I knew about this book was people considered it a Clarke classic. From the dustcover blurb I learned that some aliens called The Overlords came to Earth and created a sort of utopia: no arms race, war, disease, or poverty. But then...

If you have read it, you know. If you haven't, I am not going to tell you. This is a most thought provoking story about the fate of the human race. Was he telling us to be careful what we wish for or was he terribly prescient about mankind?

Well, you could say it is just science fiction. But Arthur C Clarke covers a span of ideas that shoots all the way to the present day. Here we are still using an arms race as an excuse to go to war and still arguing over what is to become of our species.

That is why this author is still read. Could we force our political candidates to read stuff like this as a prerequisite to running for office?


(Childhood's End is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore. To find it at your nearest indie bookstore click on the cover image above.)

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